Steamed lettuce with oyster sauce ( ) is a deceptively simple dish with complex flavors. It is one of the few vegetarian dim sum dishes around and is quite delicious and healthy for you. In most dim sum restaurants, steamed lettuce will not be found in the rolling carts, you’ll need to special order it from the kitchen.

This dish is simply steamed iceberg lettuce that is subsequently coated with oil and oyster sauce. Oyster sauce, a staple of Cantonese cooking, is thick brown sauce made from oyster extracts, salt, sugar, soy sauce, and other seasonings. As a general rule, Chinese people do not eat raw vegetables including lettuce.

I don’t usually consider iceberg lettuce to have much flavor in its raw state, but steaming lettuce seems to bring out its full potential. The somewhat crunchy and chewy texture of steamed lettuce and the fusion of oil and oyster sauce really does wonders on the palate! You may never go back to raw iceberg lettuce again after eating this dish.